Episode 18

Episode Information
Episode #18
Title 1: 命の選択を Inochi no sentaku wo The Judgement of Life Title 2: Ambivalence
Written By	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi
Directed By	Tensai Okamura
First Aired	1-31-1996
Video Release Date	{{{video_release}}}
Angel Appearances	Bardiel
Eva Sorties	Eva-00, Eva-01, Eva-02
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Episode 17"	"Episode 19"

Synopsis

The Episode begins with the transport aircraft carrying Eva-03 flying through a cloud formation in which the Angel Bardiel is lurking.

Misato leaves for Nerv's second test facility at Matsushiro. Toji is absent from school, a fact that confuses Shinji. Both Toji and Misato are waiting due to a delay in transporting the Eva to Japan. The delayed flight arrives, and the Eva is readied for activation.

During the activation test, it is revealed that the Eva is indeed in a combat-ready condition and could go straight into combat if necessary. The activation begins normally, but then becomes troubled as the Eva experiences a dangerous power surge. Attempts to cut the power and stop the activation fail. To Ritsuko's horror, a high energy reaction is detected inside the Eva. The Angel-infested Eva sets off a huge explosion and escapes from the facility.

Tokyo-3 hears of what happened at Matsushiro, and soon detects an entity with Blood Type Orange. Initial confusion turns to utter horror as the infected Eva-03 comes into view. Attempts to eject the Entry Plug are inhibited by a sticky mucus that holds the plug into place. The three remaining Evangelions sortie against the infected Eva, with no choice but to fight it with the pilot held hostage.

Shinji has been kept out of the loop, and doesn't know that Toji is the pilot of Eva-03. Asuka is about to tell him when the mutant Eva knocks her out. Rei hesitates to shoot the infected Eva, which gets the chance to round on her and attack. The mutant Eva leaks a purplish fluid that begins to infect Eva-00 through the left arm, which is severed with Rei still synchronized (And feeling the agony of losing her own left arm). The Angel turns to attack Eva-01. Shinji sees the trapped entry plug and refuses to fight the Eva while the pilot is still inside. The Eva's mutated arms reach out and grab Eva-01 by the neck.

Gendo orders Shinji to fight, but Shinji would rather be strangled to death than kill Eva-03's pilot. Infuriated, Gendo orders the Dummy Plug system to be activated. Eva-01's eyes glow red as it grabs the infected Eva-03 by the neck, and both Dummy Plug and Angel try to strangulate each other. The Dummy Plug's murderous power is revealed when it breaks Eva-03's neck. The stretchable arms unwind and go limp. Eva-01 smashes in the infected Eva's skull and proceeds to dismember the unfortunate Eva in a horrific scene of bloodshed and gore. Shinji screams for his father to stop it, but Eva-01 continues until it crushes the Entry Plug with Toji still inside.

Notes

• English is used in the original Japanese version of this episode to represent personnel from the United States' First Branch: at the beginning of the episode for the interchange between the Eva transport and Air Traffic Control, and later during Eva-03's bilingual activation experiment.
  • The American personnel say "Evangelion Unit One" in place of the Japanese "Evangelion Shogouki".

• Evangelion Unit-03, built by Nerv's third branch at Massachusetts, is the Second Production Model, and presumably an improvement on Eva-02, the First Production Model. Ritsuko mentions that it is capable of going into battle as soon as it is activated.

• Bardiel's physical form while hiding in the cloud formation is not seen, but is assumed to be something similar to the sticky mucus that holds the Entry Plug in position and which later seeps onto Eva-00.

Analysis

• Eva-03 is already in a battle-ready state, according to Ritsuko. How it differs from the previous three Evangelions is not known, but it is possible that superior technology(The previous Evas were built in the early 2000s, while Eva-03 is new) allows a higher synchronization rate between the pilot and the Evangelion.
  • Ironically, Eva-03's very superiority against the previous Evangelions might have allowed Bardiel to infect and mutate it more effectively than it would have with another Eva.

• Eva-01 under the Dummy Plug breaks Eva-03's neck in seconds (When the Angel-infected Eva failed to strangle Eva-01 after a much longer period of time) and destroy the rest of its body seemingly without effort. It is not explicit if Eva-01 is physically more powerful, if Eva-03 is weakened by its mutations, or if the Dummy Plug bestows abnormal power, but Maya's line "Is this the power of the Dummy Plug?" suggests the latter.

The Soul in Evangelion Unit-03

The soul in Eva-03 is never mentioned at all. Ritsuko mentions in the previous episode that there is a person for whom a core can be prepared (Referring to Toji). Since Eva-01 and Eva-02 have the souls of the Pilots' mothers, Eva-03 might have the soul of Toji's mother inside. However, preparation of the core and the insertion of the soul are never shown, and no mention of any contact experiment is made. Eva-03 was brand new, built in America after the American government witnessed the effectiveness of the previous Evangelions in battle, further complicating the issue. In the end, the answer may never be known, and the destruction of the infected Eva(And the last appearance of its pilot in the next episode) renders the point moot.

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